1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device for holding a dental or medical syringe for safe and convenient capping and uncapping of the needle on the syringe.
2. Related Art
The use of needles and syringes in medical and dental applications is widespread. However, the danger of needle sticks inheres in all stages of syringe use, e.g., assembly, uncapping, injection, recapping, disassembly, and discarding. Where deadly diseases can be transmitted by inadvertent needle sticks, the desirability of preventing such inadvertent needle sticks is obvious.
This problem is of particular concern with standard dental and medical safety syringes. Because dental safety syringes are designed to be re-loaded and re-used on the same patient to administer additional doses of anesthetic, where necessary, there is increased exposure of the user's hands to the needle during uncapping and recapping. Further, there is also a risk of exposure of needle sticks from medical syringes during un-capping, use, and re-capping, despite the fact that medical syringes are designed for a single use.
Attempts have been made to design products that provide a “safe” yet easy-to-use method of uncapping and recapping a needle on a syringe. However, many of these products, while offering some advantages, still expose the needle to the user's hands at some point in the assembly or operation, are complicated to assemble, cumbersome to use, or because they include disposable parts, produce excessive medical waste.
For example, “scooping up” the cap using the needle is a recommended method of recapping a needle. An example of a built-in recapper based on the scooping method is the disposable SCOOPCAP manufactured by JRM Enterprises, Inc. and designed for use on standard dental syringes. Although the Scoop Cap is attractive because it requires minimal assembly and produces minimal medical waste, the needle still remains in close proximity to the user's hand during assembly and disassembly, thus affording little protection to the user from needle sticks during these steps.
Another safety needle which fits standard metal syringes is the SAFE-MATE safety needle (MedPro, Inc., Lexington, Ky.) which has a lockable, slidable, protective sheath covering the needle. Although the slidable sheath protects the user's hand during assembly and disassembly of the needle to and from the syringe, and this safety needle produces minimal medical waste, the sheath remains attached to the syringe during use. This disadvantageously impedes access to all areas of the mouth, limiting certain dental procedures such as maxillary posterior injections.
A fully disposable dental syringe assembly has been developed by DENTALOGIC by Protecs Medical Corporation, Miami, Fla. This syringe provides adequate protection from hazard to the user during assembly and capping because the needle is not openly exposed to the user. However, assembly time is excessive, and, although the syringe is designed to be used with one hand, handling the syringe with one hand requires undue manual dexterity. Further, the syringe is not reloadable, which is a disadvantage if another dose of medication is required. Because the syringe is not reloadable, and is totally disposable, excessive medical waste ensues.
Another fully disposable dental syringe assembly, Hypo Safety Cartridge Syringe, has been developed by Dentsply MPL Technologies, Franklin Park, Ill. Although it is pre-assembled, and provides some protection from sticks from the needle when it is attached to the syringe, this syringe assembly still leaves the injection end of the needle exposed during needle uncapping and capping, and therefore still presents a hazard of needle sticks to the user.
Thus, there remains a need for a safe and convenient method for capping and uncapping a standard medical or dental syringe with one hand which requires minimal assembly, has no assembly or disassembly hazard, is reloadable, results in minimal medical waste, and preferably minimizes hand exposure during needle capping and uncapping.